6.5x55 Swede information Please

[e rex]

A few years back an old friend was having some health issues, I tried to lend a hand as best as I could. Last year he left this place for another place where I hope the hunting and fishing are always good. This morning his oldest son stopped by and said that the family wanted me to have one of Dad's guns.
He handed me a little 6.5x55 swede with an 18" barrel and someone had fit the most beautiful Birdseye Mannlicher stock to the little rifle. The bolt is altered and a Beuhler safety added. It wears an old Tasco Pronghorn scope.
Blueing is nice and bore is bright. I know nest to nothing about this round and rifle except it came from a dear friend and I had tears in my eyes when the son left.
Any info would be appreciated.
Thank You,
Rex

 

[chiggerbyt]

Delete please double post.

 

[chiggerbyt]

It sounds like you have the Model 94 or 94/14 Swedish Mauser carbine. One of the most sought after military surplus carbines every imported. I have one in original configuration and they are just a beautiful rifle as is. Many were sporterized back in the 60's and made a handy deer gun. Enjoy!

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The 6.5X55 is a great cartridge and punches above its weight. In Scandanavia, it is popular for moose hunting, and has an excellent record in that role.

As a military rifle it was developed to shoot a long, heavy bullet. This means two things -- it will shoot virtually any bullet accurately, and the throats are quite long. When handloading for military rifles, best accuracy will result when the cartridges are loaded so long that they just fit in the magazine.

One point -- you MUST load this rifle through the magazine. If you drop a cartridge into the chamber and try to close the bolt on it, you'll have to remove the bolt and punch out the stuck cartridge with a cleaning rod.

 

[Poper]

One point -- you MUST load this rifle through the magazine. If you drop a cartridge into the chamber and try to close the bolt on it, you'll have to remove the bolt and punch out the stuck cartridge with a cleaning rod.

What Vern said! Absolutely!

My father had a sporterized 6.5x55 SM done in the late '50's. It was an excellent shooter with factory ammo. Alas, he traded it in 1970 for a Parker Hale in .270 Win. The .270 is a fine gun and shoots great. I wish he hadn't traded the 6.5x55, tho.

Shoot your new-to-you rifle. I think you will grow very fond of its fine accuracy and mild recoil.

 

[johnnydollar]

The 6.5 Swede is a wonderful cartridge, hard hitting, but light kicking, and very accurate. Good for anything in the Lower 48, for sure. How about some pics?

 

[Bart B.]

The 6.5x55 carbine's 1:8.7" twist was needed to spin 160-gr. bullets fast enough from its short barrel to stabilize them in cold weather. 90-gr. varmint bullets would be spun way to fast and their normal balance imperfections would not make them very accurate.

Same reason 30BR cartridges winning benchrest matches with 115 to 120 grain bullets shot out at 3000 fps use a 1:18 twist for best accuracy with almost perfectly balanced bullets.

Best twist for any bullet is what gives it the slowest rpm spin rate to keep it pointing parallel to its trajectory.

rpm = fps X 720 / twist in inches

rpm = 3000 X 720 / 12 = 180,000 rpm

 

[oneounceload]

I had one of those I bought back in '94 for $55; came with a Williams peep sight and 200 rounds of surplus in spam cans. One of the woulda-shoulda-have-never-sold guns........

 

[Liberty1776]

It's one of the perfect rounds for whitetail hunting...(just my opinion)

 

[Paul7]

My all around hunting rifle is a Sako Finnlight 6.5x55, amazing power, two animals I have shot were disemboweled, including a pronghorn last Saturday. My guide said he had never seen that happen.

People knock it and say you can't find ammo as easily, but when was the last time you went hunting and forgot your ammo, or used it all up? They say you have to reload to get good results, bunk, I've killed 12 animals with it all DRT, including two cow elk, using factory ammo.

 

[StrawHat]

The 6.5 is a great cartridge and easily usable for most hunting situations. Without seeing it, it will be hard to tell if the barrel is from a carbine or a cut down rifle barrel, or if it is an aftermarket barrel. Anyway, with the Mannlicher stock it will make a nice hunting rifle. I have a short barreled Swede and I handload for it with cast bullets. I like the 160+ grain weights. My brother loads his with 125 grain jacketed bullets and likes it for caribou and such.

Kevin

 

[jrdolall]

My rifle of choice for the past few years has been a sporterized Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55. I have killed a couple of deer with it and my 14 year old daughter got her first deer with it last year.
AS already mentioned it is light kicking and tremendously accurate. I mounted an old 3x9 Leupold on it and it is as accurate as I can be at 100 yards. The first ammo I bought was a PPU (the only ammo available locally at the time) and it was not as accurate as the Hornady I use for hunting. If I can lay my hands on a box of the ammo I use I will PM you.

 

[Scrumbag]

The Swede is massively popular in Europe. This relatively long, thin, slow, heavy, soft nose bullets do a wonderful job of penetrating and putting down deer with authority way beyond the recoil you get....

 

[Paul7]

My rifle of choice for the past few years has been a sporterized Swedish Mauser in 6.5x55. I have killed a couple of deer with it and my 14 year old daughter got her first deer with it last year.
AS already mentioned it is light kicking and tremendously accurate. I mounted an old 3x9 Leupold on it and it is as accurate as I can be at 100 yards. The first ammo I bought was a PPU (the only ammo available locally at the time) and it was not as accurate as the Hornady I use for hunting. If I can lay my hands on a box of the ammo I use I will PM you.

I don't recommend using PPU ammo for hunting, just range work. I once had a PPU 6.5x55 round completely fragment on a 35 lb. hog.

 

[e rex]

I believe it is an original 94 barrel. There is a small dimple towards the end of the barrel and another near the receiver end where the front and rear sights were mounted, if it were a cut barrel the front dimple would not be there.

 

[aerod1]

You have a wonderful rifle . I have 4 Swede Mausers , 1 sporterized model 94. 2 all original model 96, and an all original model 38 . My 94 is my favorite hunting rifle due to it's extreme accuracy . It was manufactured in 1918 and shoots great today ! My 94 looks like and old piece of junk but it is sweet !

 

[GlockNation]

Comeback

The 6.5x55 seems to have made a comeback in the last few years. Ammo is much, much easier to find nowadays and Midway stocks allot of it as does Graf and Sons and others as well. Very accurate caliber. I have 4 of them a Winchester sporter, a Ruger 77, and husky military conversion and a Kimber of Oregon sporterized military conversion. All of them shoot MOA with any ammo, but I like the Kimber the best it is the shortest and most fun to handle to shoot. I did have to install a Timney trigger on both military conversions though, they both had the original 2 stage triggers on it when I bought them. Your gun is probably a sporterized military one like my Kimber. Keep it, enjoy it and if the twist is 7.87 like Winchester and military conversions, you will be able to shoot any 6.5 x 55 ammo from it accurately. By the way some time ago a gun writer did a torture test on a military swede and he had a really hard time trying to ruin it. They are much stronger actions than some people say. The European ammo until recently was the only way to go as the American manufacturers were afraid to load too hot for such an old rifle. I think they woke up and realized that the gun will shoot anything safely, and are now doing a better job. Check out Double tap ammo.

 

[kBob]

I recently saw a You Tube video where someone was touting the possibility of using a 96 with the wooden bulleted blanks for home defence and short range target shooting.

Gotta love the internet.

I may try Deer hunting with the FMJ -WC plastic bulleted 5 meter training ammo This year You guys thing 300 meters is a stretch for than gun and ammo combo?

Seriously though I wish I still had some of that short range indoor gallery stuff. I have not found any for years though.

A friend frightens me in that he buys wooden bulleted blanks for his 96 long rifle, dump the powder and works up what we old farts would call a mid range loading of reloading powder and whatever bullet he has gotten cheaply of late.
No case or primer blow outs so far but a little scary to me.

I think the sights on the various 96s are interesting. I have the modified rear sight on my short rifle with a 200-600 meter marked disc and a picture of a Lange Skiff Long boat on the disc. My barrel was cut for the Blank firing attachment and I went with a nice matching thread protector and currently have the ugly sight protector on my front sight as well for some reason.

-KBob

 

[Captcurt]

Congratulations! Great round.

Got to go with the majority on this one. I had a 700 classic in the Swede and it was a delight. 120gr Speer HotCors were dynomite on whitetails. I bought 3 sporterized mausers and sold them to friends. All three said that that round was their favorite. If I found a custom Mauser with a mannlicher style stock I would be in my 7th Heaven.

 

[majortoo]

Swedish Mauser

I have never heard a bad work about any of these fine rifles. Wish I had one! Also, wish I had one of the CG 62 Swedish Mauser rifles. They were produced with a special folding stock, and one was used the win the gold medal in the 1960 Olympic Winter Biathlon. That was held in Squaw Valley, CA, and was the only time that high power rifles were used in the event. For those not familiar with the event, you used cross country skis to get from one firing point to the next, and used iron sights at ranges out to 250 yards. You were penalized for each target missed. The Swedish athlete was not the fastest skier, but won the gold with a perfect shooting score, the only man to do so. A Finn took silver, using the fine Finnish version of the Moisin Nagant (also on my wish list!). A Soviet athlete took third, using a Moisin Nagant as well. Americans were using Model 70 Winchesters in .243 or .308. Two of our guys finished in the twenties, which was highly respectable, IMHO. In those days, American athletes were true amateurs competing against heavily subsidized professionals. Some years ago I had the privilege of meeting one of those guys, Larry Damon, up in New England where was teaching cross country skiing. He had incredible smooth form, and was a great teacher. Hope he is still around.

 

[CB900F]

E-Rex;

I've been foolin' around with the Swede for a while now. Find a reloading manual, doesn't really matter whose, Speer, Hornady, Nosler, etc. & take a look at the bullets. Compare the sectional density of the 6.5mm (or .264") bullets with, say, the .270 & the .30-06. The sectional density gives a good indicator of the ability of the bullet to penetrate. Then look at the ballistic coefficient. Generally speaking, the higher the G1 B/C the better, it indicates how well the bullet slides through the air.

The B/C is the reason the Swede's 140 grain bullet can start out slower, but at an extended range arrive going faster, than a lot of other highly regarded round's bullets. A higher velocity means more energy delivered, generally considered to be a good thing. Also, the Swede has a well deserved reputation for being accurate. Possibly very accurate depending on the given gun.

So now you have a relatively short, should be nice handling, carbine that can drop about any non-dangerous game in North America. I do hope you either reload or are considering getting into it. The Swede can truly shine with tailored reloads. My Swede drives a Sierra GameKing 140 grain bullet at 2725 muzzle. It's a hunting weight barrel in a hunting gun, but it consistently shoots .4's, three shot groups at 100 yards. The best it's ever done is a .261" three-shot 100 yard group. I live in "Outer Montana" and hunt elk with mine every year.

900F

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Mne is a Model 96 sporterized by Kimber. These military rifles, which were throated for the long 160 grain bullet, shoot best when the bullet is loaded way out. Remington bulk 140-grain bullets have two cannalures, and shoot best when the bullet is seated so the rear cannalure is level with the case mouth.

 

[e rex]

Thanks for the input. I was given a box of 85 grain Sierra HPs. Just for kicks I loaded 5 with the minimum load of Varget that Sierra lists. Surprising it shot a decent group and close to the POI as the 140 grain Herters I had.
This rifle needs some bedding help and maybe after deer season I'll get to that. It should be a real shooter then.

 

[shootr]

Mine is a sporterized Swede rifle with a barrel shortened th 20". It's a tack driving deer slayer. Over the years I've settled on 120 NBTs. Last year's buck dropped in his tracks.

 

[T.R.]

The 6.5mm cartridge is similar to the modern 7mm-08 as far as ballistics are concerned. It shoots flat enough for hunting pronghorn antelope on the central plains.

TR